Elizabeth Mansfield
Photo by Fatimah Namdar
Biography
Elizabeth has been working in theatre, radio, TV and film since the 1970s. She trained at the Elmhurst Ballet School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and later, in opera, at the City of Leeds College of Music, where she was awarded Licentiate of the Trinity College of London.
She has performed many leading roles in UK regional theatres, and London’s West End, in plays, music theatre and musicals, winning an Olivier Award nomination for ‘Best Actress in a musical’ and ‘Best Actress’ in the London Theatre Awards, for her performance in MARIE at the Fortune Theatre.
She has made over 100 recordings of plays, serials, series, and morning stories for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and was nominated ‘Best Actress’ in the Sony Radio Awards. She has worked in television and film appearing in several popular TV series.
Elizabeth was a founder member of the celebrated Red Ladder Theatre, where she first worked with collaborator, Steve Trafford. The company worked as a collective; devising and touring new theatre/music work to communities. Continuing the collective principal, Mansfield and Trafford founded ENSEMBLE, in 2001, to ‘collaboratively create and tour new theatre work, which explores the relationship between music, text and song, alongside educational programmes for young people’.
Working with Ensemble, Elizabeth has created and performed nine, new pieces of theatre, working with over 30 different artists: Most recently she played Nell Gwyn in THE RESTORATION OF NELL GWYN by Trafford, on tour and at Park 90, London. Next up she wil be performing and singing in CLARA’S GIFT, a new piece about Robert and Clara Schumann, exploring Robert Schumann’s famous song cycle: ‘Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman’s Love and Life).
Elizabeth’s work as a producer is extensive. She has produced all Ensemble's theatre work, often working in co-production partnerships, including with York Theatre Royal; Theatre by the Lake, Keswick; the Drill Hall, London; Leeds Lieder +; The Peabody Trio, Baltimore USA; and Tambai Promotions. She produced both West End runs of MARIE at the Fortune Theatre London, with Paul Gane (SOLT) and Rolf Kruger Management, and was involved in production, as well as starring in HYMN TO LOVE at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, the Drill Hall London, and Traverse One at the Edinburgh Festival. For Visiting Moon Productions she organized and co-produced a national UK tour of Bertolt Brecht's The Mother, with Patric Gilchrist at Theatre by the Lake.
Elizabeth has devised many theatre, text and song based educational workshop programmes, and has led all Ensemble’s educational work, including working with prisoners and detainees at HMP BRONZEFIELD (THE UNINVITED project), and with Manchester’s ‘Women Asylum Seekers Together’ group (SOUVENIR D’ANNE FRANK project). She has worked with ‘Rosetta Life’, a charity that engages with people facing health challenges, facilitating them to tell their stories, through art form and song. Currently she is co-facilitating STROKE ODYSSEYS, an innovative workshop programme for stroke survivors.
Elizabeth is regularly a ‘Visiting Professor’ at the University of Colorado, USA, where she works with young singers, performers and other students; leading workshops and holding ‘master classes’. She has also given many performances and concerts there, at Grusin Hall.
An abbreviated list of Elizabeth's recent theatre roles
| Nell Gwyn | The Restoration of Nell Gwyn | York Theatre Royal, national tour, Park 90, London. |
| Woman from the Past | Souvenir d'Anne Frank | UK national tour. |
| Marie Lloyd | Marie | Fortune Theatre, London, York Theatre Royal, three UK tours, USA tour |
| The Performer | Portraits in Song | Greenwich Theatre & two UK national tours. |
| Narrator | Ludwig's Ghosts | Freer Gallery, Washington DC, USA St John's Smith Square, London |
| The Singer | The Uninvited | Boulder, Colorado USA, Greenwich Theatre, Drill Hall, London, three UK tours. |
| Edith Piaf | Piaf | York Theatre Royal |
| Carmela | Ay Carmela! | York Theatre Royal, Shaw Theatre, London and UK national tour. |
| Lili Brik | A Cloud in Trousers | York Theatre Royal & UK national tour. |
Other roles include: Pelagea Vlassova, THE MOTHER; Mrs Peachum THE THREEPENNY OPERA; Marlene TOP GIRLS; Mistress Sullen BEAUX STRATAGEM; Sylvia Pankhurst A BETTER DAY; Edith Piaf, HYMN TO LOVE; Stevie Smith STEVIE; The Toymaker CHINA SONG; Charlotte FLORA THE RED MENACE; Mrs Letouzel THE HAPPY HAVEN; Mistress Merrythought NUTMEG & GINGER; Narrator THE GREATEST DRUMMER IN THE WORLD: The Woman BREAKER’S YARD; Janet DEAR JANET ROSENBERG: DEAR MR KOONING; Jacky HAY FEVER; Jessica THE MERCHANT OF VENICE; Edgeworth Bess STAND AND DELIVER; Polly Browne THE BOYFRIEND; Anya THE CHERRY ORCHARD; Janna THE GREEN DOOR; Alice THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS; Ophelia ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD; Maria SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL; The Woman THE STIRRINGS IN SHEFFIELD; Sarah Greenwood TAKING OUR TIME; The President POWER MAD; Chorus WOMEN OF TROY; Florrie NERVES OF STEEL; Hermia A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; Sarah Brown GUYS AND DOLLS; Sally Bowles CABARET; Eliza Doolittle MY FAIR LADY; Original production of GODSPELL.
Theatres worked at include: Royal National Theatre; Wyndhams Theatre, London; Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; Theatre Royal, York; ICA, London; The Drill Hall, London; Fortune Theatre, London; Duke of York’s Theatre, London; New Vic Theatre, Stoke; Northern Stage, Newcastle; Roundhouse, London; Palace Theatre, Watford; Traverse One, Edinburgh; Orange Tree, Richmond; Greenwich Theatre; Harrogate Theatre; Bristol Old Vic; Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh; Sherman Theatre, Cardiff; Contact Theatre, Manchester; Theatre Royal Stratford East; Wilton’s Music Hall, London; Hackney Empire; Theatre Royal Plymouth; Leeds Playhouse; Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds; Mercury Colchester; New Wolsey, Ipswich; Theatre by the Lake, Keswick; Theatre Royal, Bath; Lighthouse, Poole; Oxford Playhouse; Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Her television work includes episodes of THE BILL, CASUALTY, HEARTBEAT, CORONATION STREET, EMMERDALE.
Film work includes THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE; 1914 ALL OUT; T. DAN SMITH
Elizabeth has made two CDs for Ensemble: PORTRAITS IN SONG – Edith Piaf and Bertolt Brecht, and THE GREATEST DRUMMER IN THE WORLD.
Elizabeth is represented by:
Pemberton Associates
50 Liverpool Street
London
EC2M 7PY
Tel: 020 7224 9036
Email: general@pembertonassociates.com
